Jabberwocky for 2005 June 29

Recently the tenth world championship for pea soup was held in Groningen, Netherlands, where pea soup is called "snert." The winner, Willem Cupido, refused to share his recipe with reporters. So I guess it's back to Andersen's for the rest of us.

I feel very sorry for the folks who live in places where food doesn't grow, and it has to be shipped in on trucks and put in the grocery store when it is already several days old. Eating our ripe tomatoes, I wonder why anyone would buy a tomato at the store.

Susanna sent me some lettuce seeds, and I planted them in a big pot in the laundry room. They germinated the next day. I hope the house stays cool enough that I can just pick lettuce leaves when I want them all summer. When winter comes, I'm going to try a French mesclun mix.

I bought a local watermelon today at Smart and Final. It is so ripe that by the time I got it home, it had split. I was going to wait to cut it up when Rachel comes back, but of course I had to do it today because it had split. So sweet and flavorful! Those little seedless melons are really handy, but even the best of them don't hold a candle to the big guys with the black seeds, however. You can't even find those in stores anymore, I guess maybe at the farmers' market.

I'm worried that the next generation of children will grow up without learning how to spit watermelon seeds.